The Ugly Koromon
by Rachel Lynn
Summary: *grins* A fluffy Veemon fic. ^-^


Disclaimer: *** **pouts** * **Do I _have_ to say I don't own Digimon?Saban and Toei own them…* grumbles * "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen isn't mine either…

Author's Note: Er, well, I have absolutely no idea where this idea came from. * looks at my Daisuke and Takeru muses who are currently throwing Fruity Pebbles up in the air to see if it looks like snow when it falls to the ground * Okay, maybe I do know where it came from…* sweatdrop * I got part of the idea from reading "Fiore: A Tale of the Chosen Digimon of Purity" by Mimi, Myself, & Iz. (Which is an * excellent * story, btw…) And the other part of it from all the entries for El Juno's fairy tale contest I keep seeing. ^-^ 

The Ugly Koromon

By Rachel Lynn

"DemiVeemon? You awake?" Daisuke whispered in the quiet twilight silence of his bedroom. His eye was killing him, but that wasn't so much what was keeping him up. He just couldn't seem to calm down. After today, he was just too keyed up to sleep. 

"Grahmp?" was DemiVeemon's muffled response as the digimon rolled out from under Daisuke's blanket. The little blue creature blinked sleepily and then plopped down beside Daisuke's head. "What's up?" 

"I just wanted to know if you were awake." The red haired boy whispered as he threw an arm around the tiny digimon, pulling him into a tight hug. "Jun's staying over at Mimi's tonight." He added, almost as an afterthought. Of course, it wasn't much of an afterthought. He'd been thinking about what had happened today nonstop since he'd gotten home. And without Jun here to explain what was going on…

"Why did you hit Matt, anyway?" DemiVeemon asked as he wiggled, trying to find a comfortable position. 

"He said some mean things about Jun that I didn't think were true." Daisuke sighed as he pulled the blanket over both their heads. Problem was, here it was like six hours since he'd hit Matt and he still didn't know if what the older blonde had told him was true or not. Resigned, he tucked the blanket securely around both him and DemiVeemon. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he always felt…safer when all of him was under the blanket. It was like the real world couldn't get him here. 

"Oh," DemiVeemon flipped around and blinked at Daisuke in the darkness, "but I thought you said Jun was really annoying and that you wish she'd go away." 

"She is annoying," the red haired boy retorted back defensively, "but I'm the only one who's allowed to say so." DemiVeemon shot him a confused glance. "She's my sister. Other than you, she's like the only other person I've got. And the only time I said I wished that she'd go away was when I saw her chasing Matt. I knew he wasn't into girls." If anything, DemiVeemon's gaze grew more perplexed. 

"I don't get it." 

"Nevermind." Daisuke shook his head. "It's not that big of a deal." Except that it was. He was worried about Jun, more than he probably ever had been before. And right now, it was hard to put a trust in an outsider, in Mimi, when he knew that there was something wrong going on. "But you know," Daisuke started quietly, "since we're both awake and all, do you think you could possibly, I don't know…"

"Tell you a story?" DemiVeemon chirped, saving his partner from the embarrassment of having to ask. "Which one?" DemiVeemon looked over at Daisuke's worried brown eyes. He knew that his partner was worried about his sister, and that it had something to do with the clothing she'd been wearing and the fact that Jun had been crying. And if he was guessing right, DemiVeemon frowned slightly, something about Jun's clothes and the fact that she'd tried to take a nap with Matt, really had Daisuke upset. 

"The Ugly Koromon." Daisuke told DemiVeemon quietly as he pulled the digimon closer to him. The blue creature nodded solemnly. That story was a favorite of Daisuke's, and of his too for that matter. 

"Once upon a time…" DemiVeemon started. 

***

"Ew! It's Blue! The ugly Koromon!" 

He could feel his face fall at the sound of the taunts of the other Koromon his age. It didn't matter though, he told himself as he puffed out his chest and tried to walk over to the scoffing group by the village's water fountain. They didn't know him really well yet, after all, he'd only digivolved from his baby form a couple of weeks ago. Like his Mom kept telling him, it would just take a little time before he fit in. 

"Hi guys." He sidled up uncertainly at the edge of the group, and offered a hesitant smile. 

"Look! He didn't even _bounce_ over!" Blue's brother announced with disgust as he glared at Blue. "He _walked_. What kind of a Koromon are you, Blue?!" 

He felt his face heat with shame and his head roll down to his chest at the reprimand. Everybody in the village called him Blue. When he'd first digivolved from his baby form, it hadn't been that big of a deal, but after a while, he'd started to notice that nobody else had a name like his. They all called each other 'Koromon'. But not him. They called him Blue instead. 

"You aren't even the right color, Blue." His sister taunted as she hopped in a tiny circle around him. He could hear his beautiful brothers and sisters and their friends twittering in response. They were laughing at him again, and he could feel his eyes begin to fill with tears. 

His sister was right, though. He wasn't the right color. Everyone else, everyone from his grandmother to his brothers and sisters, was an angelic pearly pink. They all had long graceful ears that could hear things from miles and miles away. And him? Reluctantly, he reached up and felt his own stubby ugly ears. 

"Hey! Let's go sledding down the snow hill!" He heard another one of his brothers shout over the chatter of all the other Koromon. Blue's ears perked up at that. Sledding? Now that sounded like fun!

"Can I come, too?" He asked quietly as they started bouncing over the ridge and towards the snow-covered hills that dotted the base of the mountain to the East. 

"I don't think it's a good idea, Blue." Another one of his sisters told him sympathetically. "With those leg things of yours, you might get stuck in the snow, and it would take forever to get you out. Why don't you go back home and help Mom." She patted him on the head with one of her long graceful ears, and then turned to follow all the other Koromon towards the hills. 

Dejected, Blue sat down and looked at those blue leg things of his, as well as the blue hand things he had. Why couldn't he have been born like all the other Koromon? Tears filled his eyes and he sniffled before slowly turning around to head back towards his mother's hut. More than anything in the digiverse, he wanted to look like all his brothers and sisters. He wanted to have their pretty pearly skin, and their long silky ears. 

There had to be some reason, he decided, for why he wasn't like all the other Koromon in the village. And if anyone would know, it would be his mother. So, running on his little leg things, he raced towards his mother's hut. 

He slowed to a stop just as he reached the door though, because he could hear his mother talking to the next door neighbor Koromon. He didn't want to listen in, but he didn't want to interrupt them either, so he stood outside the door for a moment, unsure. 

"…I just don't know what to think, Koromon. He isn't at all like his brothers and sisters. They're all the same pearly pink that they're supposed to be. But Blue? He's just odd. I don't really understand how it could have happened. I have ten children that look exactly like all the other Koromon in this village, and then there's Blue." 

"He is a strange one. And no offense, Koromon, but he really is a rather ugly looking Koromon. Even the elders are noting that he doesn't look much like the way a Koromon's supposed to look. What with that blue skin and all. A couple of the Agumon are even worried about what he might look like once he digivolves again. He simply doesn't fit in here at all. Not one bit. He's the laughingstock of the entire village." 

Blue stood rooted to the spot as his mother and the neighbor talked. And then, he turned around and ran back to the water fountain as fast as his leg things could carry him.

Reaching the top rim of the fountain with his hand things, he hauled himself up and looked down at his reflection in the water. An ugly blue Koromon stared sadly back at him. The neighbor Koromon was right. The tears gathered in his eyes again, he was strange. And he didn't look much the way a Koromon was supposed too. And he didn't belong here. 

With a ragged sigh, he hopped off the edge of the water fountain. He was an embarrassment to his brothers and sisters, to his mother. It would be best, he decided, if he just left. Rubbing the tears out of his eyes, he started walking out towards the West…in the direction of Infinity Mountain. And he knew as he started walking, that if he made it there, it would be farther than any other Koromon had traveled before. 

The village slowly faded away and the forest started to sneak up on him. And as the sun started to set, Blue grew a little scared. He'd never been outside of the village at night, and he'd never been without the protection of his mother before. But, he bit his lip and pushed on determinedly, he wasn't going back. The night noises were creepy though, and he found himself beginning to worry. What if some huge night digimon popped out and decided he looked tasty? As far as he knew, he didn't even have an attack to use against them. 

"Hello! Who're you?" 

"Gayahhh!" Blue yelled as something popped up right in front of his nose. He turned to run in the other direction, but as he took his first step, he suddenly realized he was surrounded. Surrounded by…"What are you?" He asked, suddenly curious as he looked at the tiny pale green creatures in the moonlight. They were about his size, but they looked much different. They had four leg things instead of two, and they didn't have hands. And out of their heads were two things that he _thought_ could be ears, but they didn't much look like the ears he was used too. 

"Tanemon," one of them chirped back cheerfully. "What are you?"

"Koromon," he said hesitantly as they all started to twitter around him. 

"You don't look much like a Koromon." The same Tanemon giggled back as she hopped excitedly around him. "All the Koromon I know are round and pink." 

"They all call me Blue." He offered quietly as the other Tanemon joined in on the giggling. "I'm trying to walk to Infinity Mountain." He told them defensively as they bounced excitedly amongst themselves. 

"Infinity Mountain?" Tanemon chirped back doubtfully. 'That's a real long ways away."

"I know. But that's where I'm going." Blue told them as he started to walk away from them in the direction of the gigantic peak in the distance. 

"Why?" Another one of them chirped inquisitively. Blue stopped for a second at that. Why?

"I don't know. It just seemed like a good place to go." He finally said decisively. The Tanemon seemed to all take that in for a moment and then they all piled together in a group as Blue started walking away. 

"Wait!" Blue turned to see the Tanemon bouncing after him. "You're the ugliest Koromon we've ever seen. But, we're headed in that direction ourselves, so why don't e walk half way there with you?" 

After thinking for a second, Blue then nodded and together they started walking. The Tanemon were a lot nicer to him then his brothers and sisters had been, but then, he wasn't a Tanemon. And they didn't seem too concerned with the fact that he didn't look like a Koromon. All too soon though, they were parting ways three days later, and once again, he was on his own. 

The weather had gotten colder too, he noted as he shivered. He _must_ be getting close to Infinity Mountain. The Agumon that came to the Koromon village always agreed that Infinity Mountain was cold. More determined then ever, Blue grunted and started climbing through the snowdrifts that were starting to form in front of him. 

If he were like his brothers and sisters, he thought, he could just hop over these drifts with no problem at all. But like his one sister had warned him, his leg things were getting stuck in the snow, and they slowed him down. And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that he was thirsty! Tiredly, Blue started to search for somewhere to get a drink of water. He missed the water fountain that was always flowing in the middle of the Koromon village. 

He stumbled over one particularly large pile of snow, and before he knew it, he had his wish. Water. Unfortunately, he was now swimming in it. And as he looked around frantically, there wasn't much of a way for him to get out. He swam back over to the snowdrift that was hanging over the edge of the water and he tried to reach up with his hand things, but it was no use. If he were like his brothers and sisters, he could have used his long graceful ears to haul himself back up out of the water, but he wasn't like them. 

Sadly, he looked at his reflection in the water as he swam slowly in circles. The ugly blue face with the ugly stubby ears blinked back at him. He couldn't go back home to the Koromon village, even if he wanted too. The sun slowly sank below the horizon, and Blue continued to swim exhaustedly. He wouldn't have to swim for much longer though, he realized as he looked out across the water. Sheets of ice were beginning to form around him. And before he knew it, he was frozen in place. 

He was all alone. And with big fat tears rolling down his face, Blue realized that he'd always been alone. In the Koromon village, he'd never looked like his brothers and sisters, not even when he'd been in his baby form. And they didn't want an ugly Koromon like him to be around or to be their friend. And the Tanemon? While they had been nice to him, they weren't the ones he belonged with either. Maybe it was better this way. To just fall asleep here frozen into this water during his journey to Inifinity Mountain. 

"Well, hello there." 

Surprised, Blue looked up to see another digimon standing next to him on the ice. "Who…who are you?" He asked as his teeth chattered. The other digimon had hand things and feet things like him, but instead of being small and blue, this digimon was big and sort of peach colored. 

"I'm Gennai. And I've been looking all over the place for you." The digimon told him as he bent down to Blue's level. 

"You have?" Blue asked suspiciously.

"Yes, I have, now why don't you digivolve and get out of there, I have somewhere important I need to take you." Gennai returned as he stood up once again and calmly walked off the ice. 

"Can I do that?" Blue asked. "Digivolve? I mean, my brothers and sisters won't be able to digivolve for another two years and they're way older than me."

The digimon on the shore chuckled. "I'm sure you'll be able to digivolve. You're special." Blue frowned and then shrugged. It couldn't hurt to try at least. 

"Koromon digivolve to…Agumon!" Blue gaped as he broke through the ice and pulled himself up onto the shore. He'd done it! He'd digivolved, and he wasn't even _half_ as old as his brothers or sisters! But as he looked down at the ice, he felt the tears gather up in his eyes again. He didn't look like any Agumon he'd ever seen. He didn't have the elegant golden skin or the tiny ears. His stubby ears were now big. Too big for an Agumon. And his skin was still the same ugly shade of blue. 

"Son, I think you're a bit confused." Gennai bent over, putting a hand on Blue's shoulder. Blue didn't respond though. All he could do was look down at the reflection of the horrid looking digimon in front of him. He was as ugly as an Agumon as he had been as a Koromon. "You aren't an Agumon."

"Huh?!" Blue's head shot up and he looked at the digimon beside him in utter confusion. "But I was born in a Koromon village…"

"I left you there so they could raise you until it was your time." The older digimon told him gently. 

"So I'm a Gennai? But I don't look anything like you!" Blue cried out distressed. 

"No, no, no. I think you've misunderstood me again. You aren't a Gennai. You're a Veemon. And if you'll walk with me, I'll explain what's going on a little bit better." The digimon told Blue as he chuckled and started walking off to the West. For a moment, Blue stared at his back. He wasn't an Agumon?! He was a Veemon? Curious, Blue ran to catch up with Gennai. 

"Where are we going?" He asked as he reached Gennai's side. 

"Right here." Gennai replied with a grin as he stopped at the opening of a cave, motioning Blue in. Cautiously, Blue slowly walked into the hole in the side of the cliff, and to his amazement, he could see a bright light coming from the back of the cave. In the middle of the night, no less! 

"What is that?" He asked Gennai excitedly as he started walking towards it. The light looked so friendly, so inviting. Gennai chuckled again, but didn't answer the blue digimon's question. Blue didn't care though, he was already running ahead to investigate for himself. He slid to a stop as the light grew brighter. And there in a spacious room of the cave, there was a hole in the middle of the floor that was spilling light out into the rest of the area. 

Almost in a trance, Blue walked up to the light, and stuck his hand thing into its fiery brightness. And for a moment, he could see a big blue dragon digimon in the flames. Dressed in red, the digmon looked ferocious and awesome, and instinctively, Blue knew that one day _that_ would be _him_. And then the vision of the big digimon faded away to be replaced with another kind of vision. 

It was a big field with lots of Gennai looking digimon--no, humans--running around and kicking what looked like a black and white Koromon without ears. The running and the kicking quickly ended though, and the small human boys ran off the field to other humans--families and friends--waiting on the sides of the field. That is, all of them ran to family and friends except for one. 

Blue watched him curiously as the small red haired boy slowly walked over to the black and white Koromon and picked it up. Hugging the object close to his chest, the boy sat down on the field and gazed at all of the other boys with longing. And in a spilt second, Blue wished he could be right there beside the boy. He knew what it was like to be lonely. And Blue knew what it was like to feel unwanted and unloved. 

And instinctively, Blue knew. He and that lonely little boy were destined to be together. 

Without stopping to think about it, Blue stepped completely into the flaming light. And as an odd red-orange egg with a small metal horn on it descended, covering up the hole in the ground and the now sleeping digimon, Gennai chuckled softly. 

"Sleep tight, Veemon." He said as he gently rubbed the crest of courage that was now emblazoned on the digidestined egg. 

***

"Sleep tight, Daisuke." DemiVeemon whispered at the sleeping red haired boy beside him. Snuggling up closer to his partner, DemiVeemon smiled before closing his eyes. His last thoughts before he drifted off to sleep were pleasant ones. No matter what was happening, he and Daisuke would _always_ be together. They would never be lonely again. 


End file.
